Consultancy service for understanding labour market systems in Gaza At Norwegian Refugee Council

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a non-governmental, humanitarian organization experienced in helping to create a safer and more dignified life for refugees and internally displaced people. NRC advocates for the rights of displaced populations and offers assistance within the shelter, food security, water, sanitation and hygiene sectors.

Scope & Objective

Overarching Purpose

The need to better understand labor market systems in Gaza and identify sustainable and decent work opportunities for the population is not new. In fact, a lot of work already exists on labour markets in Gaza, and numerous actors are already engaged in livelihoods programming in the area. But NRC believes that there may be some untapped potential or new pathways to provide economic opportunities and is looking for guidance on whether NRC Palestine is best placed to leverage these opportunities and how it can most effectively do so.

The assignment of this Consultancy has three primary objectives:

1. There is a need to establish the relevance and feasibility for NRC to develop livelihoods interventions in Gaza that would lead to sustainable and decent work opportunities for its target population. In particular, NRC Palestine would like to understand what complementarity and added value it can have in the livelihoods space compared to other organizations.
2. Identify specific sectors and market systems with potential for increased self- and/or wage employment opportunities for NRC’s target populations in Gaza, taking into account how the specific constraints of the context in terms of goods and people’s mobility affect the economic dynamism of several traditional sectors.
3. Conduct deeper-dive analyses in a selected (as agreed with NRC Head of Programs) number market systems of the specific constraints and opportunities to labour and employment, so as to develop recommendations about livelihoods strategies, possible intervention ideas, and indications of possible partnership models with key market actors.

Expected Outcomes

The work of the consultant(s) is first and foremost expected to support NRC Palestine in developing a strategic orientation for potential livelihoods programming in Gaza and deciding on whether to engage in it. This includes Identification of market opportunities & recommendations for which sectors and markets NRC interventions would focus on.

A secondary objective of the assignment is for the consultant(s) to contribute to ongoing efforts to further building the technical capacity of NRC program and support teams in Gaza in conducting market analysis with systems lens. The consultant is thus expected to work collaboratively with the team, engaging them throughout the process to build on their experience, and to discuss the development of the methodology and tools with them as well as the interpretation of the findings and the formulation of the recommendations.

The work of the consultant(s) will also support NRC Palestine in identifying potential partners or potential areas for collaboration with other actors, including the private sector and/or public sector. This will be done through the mapping of existing and forthcoming related interventions in the area, as well as the identification of key stakeholders who could help overcome some of the identified barriers to engagement in the labour markets. The consultant will help establish initial relationships with some of the key stakeholders identified and NRC team members.

A particular area of interest for NRC in understanding dynamic labour markets for its target population in Gaza is to explore sustainable and decent work opportunities for youth and that arise with the growing digital transformation in the area. While not restricting the frame of analysis to these aspects, the consultant(s) are expected to explore at least the following dimensions:

1. current opportunities for various populations, with specific consideration of youth
2. current opportunities for various populations in Gaza to participate in the gig economy
3. current and future opportunities for marketing of home-based businesses of goods and services to expand through the use of digital tools

The work and recommendations should be aligned with NRC Palestine existing programming priorities and principles and in particular explore possible linkages with other existing NRC programmes in Gaza.